#jordan sepho

[raphoupix]

Jordan Sepho France v. South Africa Paris 2024 - rugby sevens

[litcest]

Infandous, by Elana K. Arnold

Before I even opened this book, I had to Google something. The meaning of infandous. For those who, like me, didn't know this word, it means something that brings a sense of terrible disgust and aversion.

But, more importantly, for us Infandous is the name of a 2015 contemporary novel by Elana K. Arnold. The book follows the life of Sephora Golding, a 16 years old girl who lives in her mother's shadow.

Sephora, nicknamed Seph, was named by her mom after the makeup store. That should tell you all the you need to know about her mom, the beautiful Rebecca. Rebecca had had a promising career in modeling until she got pregnant with Sephora at 17. Unable to work and kicked out of her parents house, Rebecca had no one to help her, specially since the baby's daddy had left, and raised Sephora by herself in Venice Beach (it's hard to not think of Lana every time I read these words).

It's summer. School is out and the air is hot in California. Seph spends her time in her studio making sculptures and hanging out with her best friend, Marissa.

Seph has a deep admiration for her mother's beauty, to the point that I had started wondering if the incest was between them (I knew this book was incestuous before picking it up - otherwise I wouldn't have bothered doing so - but I didn't knew exactly between whom the incest was) but, at the same time, she seems to resents Rebecca's superficiality and their terrible living conditions. She has never met her father nor knows anything about him, liking to live with just her mom.

The winter before, while on the beach, Seph meets Felix, a surfer on his thirties that was visiting Venice Beach. She decides she wants him and when he invites her to dinner, she agrees. Seph lies about herself, telling him she's 19 instead of 16 and that her name is Annie. After dinner, they kiss and have sex in Felix's hotel room. We don't know much about this event at this point, but Seph clearly doesn't want to talk about Felix to anyone.

Seph makes it clear to the reader that she's not the type to have sex with random man, but that there had been something about Felix that she couldn't turn away from. That something is GSA.

Rebecca's newest hookup, an younger guy named Jordan, gets Seph a job in a surfer shop, which she learns to like.

After calling her many times, Seph finally picks up the phone and answers Felix, who lets her know he is going back to California and wants to meet up with 'Annie' again. To put some extra distance between them, Seph goes to visit her aunt in Georgia.

And dude, this part is filled with incest potential. Seph cousins are 11 and 13 and "both the girls are a little obsessed with [Seph's] boobs". Which is treated as normal by the narrative.... I've a younger female cousin and she never ever started at my boobs in the intensive way that Seph describes her cousins doing. But okay...

No, actually, the whole book is filled with hits of incest. From Seph's constant babbling about her mother's beauty and sex life to Seph saying that Marissa is like a sister to her and that why she kisses her on the lips when Marissa asks.

Anyway, back to the plot. Seph returns to Venice Beach and Felix calls her again, begging her to at least tell him what he did wrong but she doesn't tells him anything.

Last winter, after her hookup with Felix, Seph was going through her mom's stuff when she found a photo of her mom with Felix, from eight before the time Rebecca got pregnant.

Back to the summer, Jordan tries to have Seph's art exposed at the store and in new board designs. At this point, the book explains the meaning of infandous so I guess I didn't have to look it up before reading.

Seph's design becomes famous in Virginia Beach, and every surfer wants a surf board with her art. It shouldn't be a surprise then when Felix comes to the store, looking to buy one for himself. At first, she considers continuing to pretend to be Annie, but quickly changes her mind and confesses being Sephora Golding, and that he knew her mother. Felix enters in shock, piecing it together. He leaves the shop in a hurry, unable to speak.

Seph's story is interwoven with chapters telling fairy-tales and myths revolving around rape. The last fairy tale is The Mermaid and the Wolf, which is the only tale that isn't real (it exists solely in this book). A mermaid is an image often associated with Rebecca, while Felix is connected to wolves. In the tale, a mermaid and a wolf have a child who is a seal, and that seal goes on to have sex with the wolf, making this tale basically a recap of the book.

"And when the wolf returned, the seal girl did not recognize him and he did not guess that she was of his flesh. So they fell together in the sand, and he knew her as he had known her mother."

Elana K. Arnold's prose is beautiful and introspective. That, coupled with the hot California air, reminded me a lot of Francesca Lia Block's Wasteland. Some people online consider that Felix raped Seph, but I disagree. The scene doesn't reads as a rape. He was older than her, but she lied her age, so it's not like he's a child predator either. Seph's regret comes from finding out he is her father, not from the sexual act itself.

I wish the book had been longer and showcased more of Felix and Seph. What happens after he left the store? Will he try to call her again to reconnect with his daughter? The good part of an open ending is that it allows you to make up whatever you want.